


The Tale of the Three Young Lords (and their babysitters)

by Faetherial



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Modern AU, Other, happy and pure, the lords are toddlers, there's a Minecraft server eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23991457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faetherial/pseuds/Faetherial
Summary: Dedue, Hilda and Hubert have been all been roped into babysitting kids who nobody else is capable of babysitting. Namely, Claude Godfrey Riegan, Edelgard Wilhelm Hresvelg, and Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	1. Hubert makes an attempt to babysit

The girl was still trying to pretend she wasn't there. Ineffectively, Hubert would admit, but the sentiment was the same either way.

"I'm sorry, Hubert, it's not your fault. She... Well, she doesn't trust strangers," Mr. Hresvelg said apologetically. Hubert nodded politely.

"I understand. She hasn't seen me since she was less than a year old," Hubert said, then caught a glimpse of his pale, gaunt face in a mirror on the wall. "And I would also understand if I in particular was the problem. I'm not exactly what you'd call 'friendly'." Or good with children, but he wasn't going to say that to the man asking him to babysit.

Mr. Hresvelg shook his head. "It's not you." He went to the base of the stairs and looked up at the top, where his daughter was crouching behind the bannister. "El, come down here. This is your cousin Hubert, you've met him before."

The girl reluctantly emerged from her hiding place. Strange, Hubert didn't remember her hair being white- perhaps her father let her bleach it?

"I don't know him," the girl said, crossing her arms. "I refuse to associate with him." Then she stomped away into her room.

Mr. Hresvelg sighed. "I will talk to her," he said, then started up the stairs. "Edelgard, come back here, please. Edelgard!"

And so Hubert was left alone, to contemplate what he'd gotten himself into. Despite what Mr. Hresvelg had said, this situation was Hubert's fault. In a moment of weakness, he'd allowed his father to guilt him into babysitting- or, as he now realized, trying to babysit- his little cousin. Nevermind that she had rejected every other babysitter her poor father had tried to hire, or that the sight of Hubert's face made children flee in terror. No, somehow he was going to magically solve this problem everyone else had been banging their heads against for three months. God, what a waste of time.

Though time wasn't the only thing this family liked to waste, considering this house... What was the point of having such a massive mansion if only two people lived there? Not to mention that Mr. Hresvelg basically had a private forest in his backyard. Hubert vaguely remembered his father mentioning that the entire Hresvelg clan used to live here- the Hresvelgs, the Vestras, even that strange branch of the family that went off and started a cult somewhere. But he didn't know any other details. He usually tried to tune out anything his father said.

Mr. Hresvelg returned, with Edelgard following close behind him. Her arms were still crossed defiantly, and she was glaring at Hubert.

"Now Edelgard, apologize to your cousin," Mr. Hresvelg said. 

Edelgard begrudgingly stepped out from behind her father. "...I'm sorry I don't like you and want you to leave."

"Edelgard!" Mr. Hresvelg scolded.

"Fine! I'm sorry for being rude." Edelgard pouted. "And I will allow you to stay... For now."

She would 'allow him to stay', what a great improvement. But it was something.

"I am... Honoured," Hubert said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. He doubted a normal child would notice, but normal children didn't say they would "refuse to associate" with someone. 

Edelgard raised her eyebrows slightly, small enough that Mr. Hresvelg didn't notice it as he put his coat on. 

"Alright El, I'm off to work. I'll be back by five- I'll make sure this time," Mr. Hresvelg said, then walked out the door. Edelgard ran over to the front window, watching Mr. Hresvelg's car roll along the driveway, through the gates, turn onto the main road and drive out of sight...

And before Hubert even realized what was happening, Edelgard had bolted across the room, opened the opposite window and leapt through it.

Hubert ran towards the window- no, he was too big to get through. The little imp had done that on purpose, hadn't she! And the twenty-foot-high gates to the backyard were locked, Mr. Hresvelg had said, so he couldn't- Whatever, he would have to use the back door.

...That was, if he could find the back door. The Hresvelg house was a giant maze of lavishly decorated rooms Hubert couldn't tell apart, so much so that the idea of someone actually living there was- dammit, another dead end?! There had to be a better way to do this. Okay, think, what would lead to- ah, the carpet in that hallway had bootprints, a bit of dirt. Must mean people have walked in this part of the house recently.

Hubert ran down that path- he was getting some  _ exercise _ today, apparently- aided by the fact that the back of the house was only lit where necessary, meaning along this hall and nowhere else. He kept running until he got to what he assumed was the back door- it had better be- then threw the door open and... Wait, close it, this house must attract burglars, even with the giant fence. Alright, where was she?

Oh, perfect. She was running towards the forest and already at the bottom of the hill. Hubert started to run after her, but he was already starting to lose his breath, maybe because his normal day didn't involve chasing after difficult first-graders. 

Hubert finally got to the bottom of the hill, but his throat was beginning to close up. He kept running, though: considering the readiness with which Edelgard had thrown herself through a window, she was probably going to do something equally stupid and get injured out in the middle of the woods if he didn't stop her. 

Had this happened every time a new babysitter came in? If so, this job really  _ should've come with a waiver holy shit he couldn't breathe- _

Hubert stopped running just outside the forest, doubled down coughing, trying to get air into his lungs and  _ oh God he couldn't breathe he was going to die oh fu-  _ No, he was going to be fine... if he could just... take an actual breath, with… Oxygen…

"What's wrong with you?"

"Low… Lung capacity…" Hubert said without thinking, then realized that the person asking was Edelgard. "Wait… You're back...?"

"Father would be disappointed if I killed my cousin," Edelgard said matter-of-factly. "But if you're bad at running, why did you chase me?"

Hubert, getting his breath back now, decided to ignore the understatement that was the word 'disappointed' in this instance. "I didn't want you to hurt yourself."

Edelgard looked unconvinced. "But you didn't stop me from running," she retorted.

_ Well, that wasn't exactly within my abilities, now was it?  _ "Correction: I didn't want you to hurt yourself deep in the forest with nobody around to help and no way of communicating. Please forgive me."

"Forgive you…?" Edelgard furrowed her brow, looking genuinely confused for a moment, then apparently decided to move on. “Well, I won’t get hurt. I explore here all the time all by myself, and I’ve never even got a scratch,” she said proudly.

“Even so,” Hubert said, “my one job today is to make sure you don’t die, and I can’t do that effectively if you’ve run away into the woods.”

Edelgard seemed to mull this over for a minute. “That makes sense, but…” Then she got a triumphant look in her eye. “Wait, what if we play hide-and-seek?”

That… sounded like exactly what he’d just said they  _ shouldn’t  _ do. “No, that would-”

But Edelgard had gotten an idea, and now nothing would deter her, apparently. “You hide, and if you get to home- outside the forest- I’ll come back to the house and not annoy you anymore. But if I catch you… You have to let me go exploring.”

Was there really a choice here? Hubert hated to let a first-grader give him orders, but he really couldn’t stop her if she decided to bolt off into the woods again. This was his only hope.

“Fine,” Hubert said, “but you won’t catch me.”

“Bold words,” Edelgard said, then covered her eyes and began counting.


	2. Dedue's weekend goes unexpectedly

“Thank you for coming on such short notice, Dedue,” Mr. Fraldarius- Rodrigue, Dedue should call him, but using a first name for an adult felt strange- said by way of greeting. “I know your plans for the weekend probably didn’t involve babysitting.”

“It is no trouble,” Dedue responded. It was true. He hadn’t had any plans for the weekend, other than helping his mother cook dinner, which he assumed did not count.

Mr. Fraldarius nodded grimly. “I would take him to the airport with me, but…” he gestured up the staircase, to a room with the door shut. Light was escaping through the gap under the doorway. The sign hung on the doorknob was blue with a cute, child-friendly drawing of a lion, and it read “Dimitri’s Room”.

Mr. Fraldarius sighed. “It’s only been a month since it happened… I suppose this is to be expected of him, the poor boy.”

It was hard for Dedue to imagine, even with the experiences he had. Losing his father two years ago had been painful enough, but having both parents murdered, at five years old…

Mr. Fraldarius glanced at his watch. “I’d better be going,” he said. Then he sighed exasperatedly and walked to the foot of the stairs. “Felix! Come down here right now, or I’m leaving without you!”

A few seconds later, the boy Dedue assumed was Felix came into view at the top of the stairs. He also seemed to be about five. He kicked the door to Dimitri’s room as he walked past and shouted “We’re leaving!”, then, seeming to sense that he would be in trouble for that, ran down the stairs and moved swiftly past his father towards the front door.

“Felix!” Mr. Fraldarius yelled, “How many times do I have to tell you-” he took a deep breath, but he still looked livid. “We will talk about this in the car. Dedue, we’ll be back by seven. Good luck.” And with that, he and Felix walked out of the house and closed the door behind them.  _ Good luck.  _ That did not exactly inspire confidence, but Dedue supposed it was appropriate.

Alright, time to make a game plan. It was four o'clock right now. Dedue decided he should probably have dinner ready by five-thirty. Now that he thought about it, Dimitri might not even be willing to eat anything. Dedue was responsible for him for these three hours, though, and he should at least make something in case Dimitri was hungry. Mr. Fraldarius had said Dimitri's bedtime was eight, but it hadn't been enforced lately for… obvious reasons. Dedue didn't have to worry about putting him to bed. Although, he was getting ahead of himself. Dimitri didn't even know who he was yet.

So the first step was introducing himself. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't pose a challenge.

Dedue walked up the stairs. Then approached the door to Dimitri's room. Alright, now to just… knock on the door…

...He had no idea how to do this.

Maybe he should just be straightforward. And then if Dimitri wanted to be left alone, Dedue would not bother him again.

Dedue knocked on the door lightly. There was no response. He didn't want to be too pushy, but he also thought Dimitri should know who he was. He knocked again.

"...Who is it?" Dimitri's voice sounded ragged.

"Hello. I am Dedue. I live a few houses down from you. Mr- '' wait, Dedue was the only one who called him 'Mr. Fraldarius'. "Rodrigue has asked me to babysit you while he picks up Glenn at the airport."

Silence. Dedue had expected as much. "I will leave you alone now. If you need anything, please let me know."

Dedue turned and started towards the stairs, but for some reason could not bring himself to walk away. He knew Dimitri had nothing to say to him, but…

"...Dedue? Are you still there?"

Dedue was shocked, but quickly recovered his composure. "Yes. What do you need?"

"Um… Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

Dimitri said nothing for a moment, as if working up the courage to speak. "...Your dad got killed too, right?"

Oh. So that was it. "...Yes. Two years ago.” Dedue had never really talked about it with anyone. Not even his mother or sister. He had never wanted to trouble them. So maybe this would be good for him. More importantly, maybe he could help Dimitri.

"How did you…" Dimitri hesitated. Being honest, Dedue was surprised that he had even said this much. "...how did you stop being sad?"

_ There was no time to be sad.  _ That was the truth. When his father died and he and his family fled Duscur, it was a warzone. Dedue had focused only on surviving. There had been no time for grief. Even now, he had… been avoiding thinking about it. But he could not say any of this to Dimitri. What could he tell him…?

"I…" Dedue started, but he did not know what to say. He couldn't just leave the question unanswered, though-

"You didn't stop being sad?" Dimitri sounded resigned, like he had known from the start that it was pointless to hope for an answer. Dedue had to say something, he couldn't just… even if there was nothing he could say, he could not leave Dimitri feeling just as hopeless as he had before.

"...Yes, I still feel the pain. But I had to keep moving, and continue living my life, even if… even if that life is completely different from how it was before." Dedue stopped for a moment, then added: "...I do not know if that is helpful."

There was no answer. Then, after a few seconds, another question from behind the door. "Were you angry? At whoever did it?"

"That would mean being angry at a whole country," Dedue said simply. Angry… Had that been what was on Dimitri’s mind since the beginning? Dedue had started to realize that even if he was the closest to understanding how Dimitri felt, his situation was still very different. Dimitri’s parents had not gone to war. They had never chosen to walk into danger like his father had… but, now that he thought about it, had it really been a choice? Dedue’s father did not  _ choose  _ for Faerghus to go to war with all of Duscur because of one extremist group...

Dedue was shaken out of his thoughts by a noise. It stood out against the silence. It was… a door hinge creaking.

Dimitri slowly opened the door. Dedue remembered his hair being neatly parted and trimmed, but, well… obviously that was no longer the case. He also had bags under his eyes, either from crying or lack of sleep, Dedue assumed. But what had caused him to come out, after all this time?

Dimitri, to Dedue’s surprise, bowed his head. “I am very sorry, Dedue.” 

Dedue was… confused, to say the least. “Er… what are you sorry  _ for _ ?” He asked, unable to mask his puzzlement.

“I was being sad and staying in my room when I only have one person to be angry at,” Dimitri said, “but you have to be angry at a whole country, and you’re not in  _ your  _ room, and you’re trying to help me.” Dimitri looked up again. “...it's never going to be the same. But I have to keep moving.”

How… Um… What had happened? Had Dedue’s words really had that big of an effect? Or… no, Dimitri had been thinking about this for a month, alone, doing nothing else. He probably had all of that figured out already: this conversation had just been the trigger for him to act on it. 

But still… Despite the fact that Dedue had only just met Dimitri, seeing him happy- even if only slightly happy- made him feel like this new life was worth living.


	3. Hilda uses her football skills (which she doesn't really have)

Hilda had only decided to babysit because she’d been told it was an easy job, and now she had to deal with  _ this.  _ This was the last time she’d take advice from Leonie, that was for sure.

“Hey Hilda, watch this!” Yelled the kid she was babysitting, Claude. At least  _ he  _ was having fun… ...wait, when did he get up there?!

"Claude, get off of the roof! You'll hurt yourself!" Hilda shouted, frantically looking around the backyard for a ladder, or a big box, or  _ something  _ to help Claude get down without jumping off- though he seemed to be about to anyway.

"I won't get hurt if you catch me," Claude yelled, sounding like he really wanted to test that theory.

“And what if I don’t catch you?” Hilda yelled back. “Just stay there, okay?”

Claude didn’t look nearly as worried as he should have. In fact, he looked pretty thrilled to be causing Hilda so much trouble. “Wait, do I stay up here or get down? You’re giving me mixed messages.”

‘Mixed messages’? Well, at least this kid knew his turns of phrase… Wait, that wasn’t important right now! He needed to get off the roof- or stay on it, or whatever!

"Just don't hurt yourself!" Hilda yelled. "Okay, how did you get up there in the first place?!"

Claude had a look in his eye that made Hilda nervous. He didn't seem to be listening to her at all. This was all making Hilda feel like he was going to do something stupi-

Oh shit.

Hilda barely had time to move as Claude flew through the air. Thankfully he had jumped in her direction, but his trajectory was just a _bit_ too far, so Hilda had to strafe across the backyard like a football player trying to complete a pass- or something, she didn’t really know anything about football. Claude looked kind of majestic, actually, if the word ‘majestic’ could apply to _stupid idiots who_ _jump off of roofs-_

OW! Jesus  _ Christ,  _ six-year-olds were a LOT heavier than they looked! But that didn’t matter, it was fine, she caught him, everything was FINE. Now to just put him down- he  _ was  _ heavy, after all.

“Jesus, Claude! You could’ve broken your legs!”  _ Or your spine!  _ God, why were kids so stupid?

“I didn’t though, ‘cause you caught me!” Claude replied. Despite the situation, he had an even bigger grin than before. “And anyway, this is, like, my tenth time jumping off the roof. I’m really good at it, I figured out that if you roll you can-”

“Claude, just because you’ve done it before doesn’t mean it’s safe!” Hilda was actually mad now, like, really mad. “Okay, so you were fine this time, but you could’ve gotten really hurt, and there was  _ no reason  _ for you to!” Seriously, how had he managed to jump off the roof  _ ten times?  _ What had his parents been doing?

Claude looked kind of mad now, too, which he had absolutely no right to be doing. “But it already happened! Why are you yelling at me  _ now?  _ How’s that gonna help?”

Hilda sighed, although maybe she shouldn’t be showing her frustration right now. Claude was a kid: he didn’t understand consequences, clearly. And since Hilda was a font of knowledge on consequences, she guessed it was her duty to share her wisdom with this poor, innocent, reckless boy.

“Okay, look. Yeah, you already jumped off the roof. You can’t go back in time and convince yourself not to do that really stupid thing. The  _ problem  _ is that you don’t seem to have learned anything from this,” Hilda said in her best imitation of her older brother Holst’s lecture voice. “Right now it seems like you don’t see anything wrong with what you did, and it also seems like you’ll just do it again and again until you get hurt or die, and by then it’ll be too late for you to learn your lesson.” Hilda paused and looked at Claude, surprised to see him rapt with attention. “So you get it? You’re not always going to be lucky, so don’t jump off any more roofs- or do anything similar which could get you hurt, alright?”

Claude was silent for a minute, pondering. Then he gave Hilda a crisp army salute. “Yes, ma’am! My roof-jumping days are over, ma’am!” Hilda wasn’t sure, but it sounded like the most sincere thing Claude had said all day. At least, she thought so? Maybe this kid was never sincere.

“All right, soldier,” Hilda said, “your first order is to explain to me how you got on the roof in the first place- and  _ no,  _ you  _ cannot  _ demonstrate.” Claude looked crestfallen at that. “Not to suggest that you were being dishonest earlier, but I would feel much more secure if you couldn’t get up there anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read all three of these chapters and didn't get bored, hi! I had the first three written already so I just decided to post them all at once lol. But um yeah, thank you for reading! I have a lot of ideas for this even if it seems like kind of a boring/normal concept so I'm really excited to write more and I hope people will like it :)


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